Happy Birthday
by Godspeed Revolution
Summary: Robbie and Lisa discuss birthdays and their father. Pre-movie. One-shot.


A/N: After watching the movie, I was struck by the idea that Robbie was really quite a hero. This is about that.

Disclaimer: Property of Miramax Films and assorted affiliates.

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"Guess what I found out about today." Robbie sat with his spine stiff, legs dangling off the concrete block, looking straight ahead.

"What?" Lisa adjusted the position of her feet in her plain black shoes so she turned ninety degrees, very slowly.

"Birthdays." Robbie chanced a quick grin at his sister. They exchanged a furtive smile. It was more than they usually allowed themselves, but no one was close enough to see them. Probably.

"What's that?" One more quarter turn. Lisa kept her head straight, like she was observing the granite obelisk in the middle of the square. It was not a very inspiring monument, but Lisa wasn't looking at it anyway.

Robbie turned his head in her direction, not so much that he seemed interested but enough to watch. He realized what she was doing. Lisa was slowly, cautiously, spinning in circles, each rotation deliberately spaced so as to not attract attention.

"Someone's going to see you doing that," Robbie said under his breath.

"What about you?" Lisa asked, now looking carefully at the ground, paved with large slabs of stone. She pointed towards her brother.

Robbie followed her finger with his eyes and almost flinched. His foot was tapping. He hadn't even noticed it. Bobbing up and down in mid-air to some made-up tune he hadn't realized was playing in his head. He stopped it.

He drew in a breath, deep and a little shaky but barely observable. "Birthdays," he repeated.

Lisa stopped her furtive spinning. Robbie knew he had her attention.

"People used to do these...celebrations to commemorate their births."

"Why?"

"Because...I don't know, it's fun. To celebrate life."

"Celebrate," Lisa repeated. Robbie heard the question in his sister's high-pitched voice.

"Like our parades, except, well, different," he said, struggling with the words. He wished he had a better metaphor to explain this, but the truth was he didn't fully understand it himself. He could almost comprehend the feelings, the sensation, the mindset that went into this custom of the past. Maybe it would help to explain the rituals.

"When it was your birthday, you got to eat all kinds of nice foods. Like cake-"

"Chocolate?" Lisa interrupted. Robbie suppressed an eye roll. Lisa was obsessed with chocolate ever since he told her about it and was dieing to try it. Neither of them had ever seen any of it, of course, which only added to its allure.

"Maybe. And there was creamed ice or something and all kinds of other things. And you would get presents too."

Lisa made a face. Presents were something they were familiar with. Every Equality Day all students received gifts from Father, something practical and dead boring like a pencil case or Standard Edition II of the Manifesto.

"Not like that. Nice things, like toys or, well, other things." It was very frustrating to try to impress upon her the meaning of this vital ritual when he was speaking a foreign language too.

But Lisa listened with rapt attention anyway. Robbie knew her well enough to see when she was faking the ice face she wore.

"And there were games. Everyone was supposed to have fun."

Lisa looked wistful. He would have to warn her against that. "Were other people supposed to come too?" she asked.

"Yes. It was about family and friends, not just being born. Everyone was together and happy. You got to laugh." Robbie watched people walk in and out of the Equilibrium station, each face as blank as the last.

"I don't understand the presents. Why did people receive presents? Were they being rewarded?" Lisa asked.

"No. It's not that at all. There were presents because-because people cared about you. Because they wanted you to be happy." Robbie rubbed his temples, feeling so close to the full meaning of the concept, but it was hard to quantify it.

Lisa took a few steps until she was next to the concrete cube, next to her brother, and casually leaned against it. "Does that mean parents gave presents to their children? They wanted them to be happy, didn't they?" There was a twinge of sadness in her voice, and Robbie knew it wasn't really a question.

He coughed into his hand to cover his emotion and sat a little straighter in his perch three feet off the ground, positioned exactly so he could see how his sister's mouth turned down at the corners.

"I wish I knew when my birthday was," Lisa said after a moment.

"I haven't told you the best part yet.

He waited a moment, building up the suspense. He could see it in her posture even though his sister's expression didn't change.

He could barely keep his mouth from twitching. "Tomorrow is Dad's birthday."

Lisa frowned, a particularly pronounced grimace on her face that made Robbie's heart suddenly race as he cast a quick eye over the square. No prying eyes. A few workers and business people, all dressed in similar drab, shapeless suits, their steps methodical and precise. They knew exactly where they were going because they did the same thing every day, for their entire lives. Like everyone else.

"Why do you call him that?" Lisa asked. She kicked the granite paving stone with her toe.

"We have to love him even if he doesn't love us. He's our dad."

"He doesn't even care about us." She stared at the skyline, arms crossed over her chest, no expression. Robbie could still feel what she felt.

"Someday he will." His palms dug painfully into the edge of the cube.

"No he won't. No one will ever care about us."

"Mom did."

She looked down. "I miss her."

They were silent. A maintenance worker in a khaki jumpsuit walked by, a tank of herbicide strapped to his back, spray nozzle in hand as he worked on the cracks between the granite blocks. There was nothing growing between them anyway. He came by every day to kill any tenacious weeds that might try to spring up, any tiny specks of green among the gray quickly stamped out. Robbie found it easy to keep his face blank as the man walked past.

"I think he loves us, Lisa. He just doesn't know it yet. How could he?"

Lisa sighed. Robbie thought she was excessive in her sighing, especially in public, but he understood the emotion she should be suppressing. "Do you think we should get him a present?"

He couldn't help it. He smiled. "What would you get him?"

"Chocolate."

They stole a glance and a smile. Robbie loved the way his little sister's eyes crinkled at the corners, her whole face transformed. That was how she should always look. A tone sounded over the speaker system, signaling the start of the next class, and he jumped down from the cube, straight face back in place. Lisa gathered herself up as well, the smile gone. He grabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. She squeezed it back and they dropped hands, his heart thumping again, but pleasantly this time, full of excitement and happiness. Together, they walked towards the solid stone building. Robbie didn't need to look to know her face matched his own—lifeless. After all, he had taught her.


End file.
